There are two known truths in the gadget world — that the iPhone 4 has a great camera for a phone, and that the Leica M9 is one of the coolest looking cameras ever. So San Francisco photographer Joey Celis is kinda a genius for designing this Leica M9 iPhone Skin. Sadly, it’s not going to be made for sale — Celis considers it a “one-off”. Definitely makes him cooler than the rest of us iPhone users, though.
Last year, Nikon released the S1000pj, the first point-and-shoot with a built-in projector. It was a little expensive, a little dim, but a really cool idea. The Nikon Coolpix S1100pj Projector Camera ($350) is the company’s second-generation pocketable projector cam, bringing improvements like a 40 percent brighter projector with a built-in stand, the ability to display the screen of a computer connected via USB, one-touch 720p movie recording, a 14.1-megapixel sensor, 5-way image stabilization, a 5x optical zoom lens, and a 3-inch touchscreen. Boring your guests with family photos has never been so easy.
Levi’s went coast to coast to film their latest commercial by snapping 2770 photographs of Mike walking across America. That’s right, “each of its 2770 frames was posed while the model kept still and then photographed; time-lapse photography gave the effect of movement on either side.”
If you’re a big fan, like us, of vintage photography, you’re not going to get much more retro than the Polaroid SX-70 OneStep Land Camera ($210). Developed in collaboration with The Impossible Project and limited to just 50 units, these hand-refurbished Land Cams feature a white and black body with a seventies-licious rainbow running from the lens to the output slot, a simple black strap, and come with two boxes of B&W/sepia PX 100 film. The perfect real-world compliment to all those grainy, processed iPhone pics you’ve been snapping.
Fashion and interiors photographer and illustrator Todd Selby is the latest blogosphere star to bring out a book of his work. The cult favorite auteur of The Selby features the eclectic homes and favorite spaces of Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Louboutin, Simon Doonan, Erin Wasson, Helena Christensen and more in The Selby Is In Your Place (Abrams, $35). Lagerfeld’s massive library in Paris is particularly astonishing. The book consists of over thirty profiles, most of which have never been seen before, accompanied by Selby’s watercolor portraits of the subjects and objects from their homes, and illustrated questionnaires along with the photographs. Cities represented include New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and London. Like the site that spawned it, the book is an alluring “insider’s view of creative individuals in their personal spaces with an artist’s eye for detail.”
Leica has just launched the stylish new V-LUX 20 compact digital camera, equipped with 12.1 megapixels and a high performance Leica 12x zoom lens along with built-in GPS tagging and HD movie recording. Priced at $699, it’s the first Leica camera to feature GPS tagging, with an innovative tracking system allowing photographers to record the exact geographical coordinates of their location automatically, as well as the local time for every shot, ensuring the user always has a useful and accurate record of their trip. In addition, the V-LUX 20 can display the names of interesting sightseeing locations from a total of 500,000 ‘points of interest’ across 73 countries. For those posting images on social networks, image portals or map sites such as Google Maps or Google Earth, the GPS data automatically reveals exactly when and where the photos were taken.
For those who want to make movies as well as still images, the V-LUX 20 enables movie recording in HD quality. Its intelligent automatic features, such as face recognition, automatic scene modes and smart exposure, are all available in movie mode, together with the camera’s zoom functions. The camera’s three inch LCD display has a resolution of 460,000 pixels, and offers an extremely bright, sharp view for precise composition and framing of shots, as well as accurate quality control for captured shots in playback mode. In addition to all the high-tech features, the matte black V-LUX 20 is also available with a classic leather case for $175, making it as stylish as any of the brand’s famed old-school models and a fitting complement to luxury accessories.
The first fruits of the Impossible Project has gone on sale, and I’ve got to say I’m really tempted to splurge the $180/£135 they’re asking for the limited edition Polaroid 600 One.
The Impossible Project, the Dutch / Austrian effort to bring back integral film for vintage Polaroid cameras is back. Now, just a little more than a year after teh take-over its first films are ready for sale to enthusiastic Polaroid fans.
Back in 2008 Impossible signed a 10-year lease on the last Polaroid production plant in Enschede, acquiring all the necessary machinery from Polaroid as well. With support from Ilford Photo, it then set out to modernize and bring back integral instant films. The first line it’s created is its PX Silver Shade, a series of monochrome instant films that combine the appearance, format, temperature sensitivity and manipulability of the old Polaroid films with the new appearance of silver-based, monochrome shades. Now, the first products in this line—Impossible’s PX 100 and PX 600 Silver Shade films—are available for EUR 18 each in a limited, “First Flush” edition from the company’s online store; retail partners will come on board soon. Also on the way this year are two colour films (100 and 600 ASA) as well as Silver Shade and color versions of the larger Integral Instant film format for usage in all Polaroid Image/Spectra/1200 cameras. In all, The Impossible Project plans to produce one million films in its first year, ramping up to 3 million annually beginning in 2011. Meanwhile, the project next month will open a combined shop and gallery at 425 Broadway in New York City, in part to host exemplary works of the artists who use its film. Along similar lines, it also recently placed a binding offer to purchase the International Polaroid Collection from the Musée de l‘Elysée in Lausanne.
Thanks Springwise
We’ve seen several efforts recently to bring Facebook photos into the offline world, such as HotPrints’ free, advert-supported albums. Now bringing such capabilities to brick-and-mortar stores comes a new initiative from Kodak that lets consumers print online photos from Facebook and Picasa using its in-store kiosks.
Starting this summer, users of Kodak Picture Kiosks will be able to access their web albums on Facebook and Picasa as well as Kodak’s own Kodak Gallery service. The kiosks will make 4×6in (102×152mm) prints of the photos, provided the resolution is high enough to make a quality print. Kodak says it also intends to connect with other social networking sites around the globe.
Given that more than 3 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook alone each month, there are plenty of opportunities for forging OFF=ON connections for consumers whose memories increasingly reside in the virtual world.
Thanks Springwise
So I realize that CF’s days are numbered, and SD will eventually win the flash card war, but for now compact flash manages to stay just one step ahead of secure digital when it comes to storage capacity. Well maybe a few steps to be exact, given Panasonic just announced a 64GB SD card, where as Silicon-Power just revealed their new 128GB CF model. The 400X card features write speeds of up to 90MB/sec allowing it to file away your monstrous RAW shots as fast as you can snap them, though there’s no word on how quickly it will snap away your hard earned cash.